What the fiscal cliff may mean for Americans

In an amazing act of bipartisanship that Americans began to think of only as a myth, senior members of both the Republican and Democratic parties met this week to come to a conclusion with President Obama about the looming Fiscal Cliff.

It’s a term that has been plastered on every newspaper and news outlet since the has election ended and both senators and congressmen took off for a much needed vacation from their own campaigning. But it leaves some Americans wondering:

What is the Fiscal Cliff?

It refers to the ending of the Bush-era tax cuts which put an anywhere from a few hundred, to a few thousand dollars back into Americans’ wallets. But Obama ran part of his campaign adamant on keeping those tax cuts for most Americans except those in the top brackets of the wealthy scale.

Republicans, however, are fighting to keep those tax cuts for the wealthy as well which is why the American populous is facing an impending cliff. If politicians cannot reach a consensus, not just the top 2% are going off it; every American in every class is going to go down head first as well.

“What folks are looking for, I think all of us agree on this, is action,” Obama said at the start of the bipartisan meeting at the White House. And although members of both parties came out of the “constructive,” meeting as Republican Speaker of the House John Boehner put it optimistic, the economy is still wary.

The deadline is December 31. If an agreement is not reached the only Christmas gift Americans will get is, some experts are predicting, another recession. Time to get into the holiday spirit and hope for the best.